Adolescent men's attitudes and decision-making in relation to an unplanned pregnancy. Responses to an interactive video drama

This study confronts a gender bias in research on adolescent pregnancy by exploring adolescent men’s decisions relating to a hypothetical unplanned pregnancy. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with adolescent men (N = 360) aged between 14 and 18 years attending schools in the Republic of Ireland. The study, the first of its kind in Europe, extends the small body of evidence on adolescent men and pregnancy decision-making by developing and examining reactions to an interactive video drama used in a comparable study in Australia. In addition, we tested a more comprehensive range of sociological and psychological determinants of adolescent men’s decisions regarding an unplanned pregnancy. Results showed that adolescent men were more likely to choose to keep the baby in preference to abortion or adoption. Adolescent men’s choice to continue the pregnancy (keep or adopt) in preference to abortion was significantly associated with anticipated feelings of regret in relation to abortion, perceived positive attitudes of own mother to keeping the baby and a feeling that a part of them might want a baby. Religiosity was also shown to underlie adolescent men’s views on the perceived consequences of an abortion in their lives.

Detection of aberrant behaviour in home environments from video sequence

We introduce an application for the detection of aberrant behaviour within home based environments, with a focus on repetitive actions, which may be present in instance of persons suffering from dementia. Video based analysis has been used to detect the motion of a person within a given scene in addition to tracking them over the time. Detection of repetitive actions has been based on the analysis of a person's trajectory using the principles of signal correlation. Along with the ability to detect repetitive motion the developed approach also has the ability to measure the amount of activity/inactivity within the scene during a given period of time. Our results showed that the developed approach had the ability to detect all patterns in the data set examined with an average accuracy of 96.67%. This work has therefore validated the proposed concept of video based analysis for the detection of repetitive activities.

Surveillance of cerebral palsy in Europe: a collaboration of cerebral palsy surveys and registers

Although cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of motor deficiency in young children, it occurs in only 2 to 3 per 1000 live births. In order to monitor prevalence rates, especially within subgroups (birthweight, clinical type), it is necessary to study large populations. A network of CP surveys and registers was formed in 14 centres in eight countries across Europe. Differences in prevalence rates of CP in the centres prior to any work on harmonization of data are reported. The subsequent process to standardize the definition of CP, inclusion/exclusion criteria, classification, and description of children with CP is outlined. The consensus that was reached on these issues will make it possible to monitor trends in CP rate, to provide a framework for collaborative research, and a basis for services planning among European countries.

Evaluation of leukocyte dynamic in mouse retinal circulation with scanning laser ophthalmoloscopy (Video report)

http://bjo.bmj.com/content/suppl/2001/06/20/85.7.DC1 Leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions play an important role in the pathogenesis of various types of retinal vascular diseases, including diabetes, uveitis, and ischemic lesions. Over the last few years, several methods have been devised in which the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) is used to study leukocyte-endothelial interactions in vivo [1,2]. Previously we reported a noninvasive in vivo leukocyte tracking method using the SLO in rat. In this method, a nontoxic fluorescent agent (6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate, CFDA) was used to label leukocytes in vitro. Leukocyte velocities within the retinal and choroidal circulations were be quantified simultaneously [3]. None of the previous methods has been developed for imaging the murine fundus, mainly due to problems arising from the small size of the mouse eye. However, there are many advantages of using a murine model to study retinal vascular diseases such as enhanced genetic definition, increased range of reagents available for immunological studies and cost reduction. We have developed our SLO method such that we can track leukocytes in the mouse retinal and choroidal circulations.

Rift Valley Fever Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Control: What Have Models Contributed?

Background: Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an emerging vector-borne zoonotic disease that represents a threat to human health, animal health, and livestock production, particularly in Africa. The epidemiology of RVF is not well understood, so that forecasting RVF outbreaks and carrying out efficient and timely control measures remains a challenge. Various epidemiological modeling tools have been used to increase knowledge on RVF epidemiology and to inform disease management policies.